User Interfaces

Patient side

A VR system has two sides: the patient and therapist side. For exposure to be effective the system has to raise a level of presence that would expose the patient to the situation he or she fears. To create this level of presence or natural interaction in the virtual world, researchers face several challenges such as moving the patient in the virtual world in a non disruptive manner, rendering objects and figures, appropriate background sound, natural dialogue with avatars, or even rapidly (co-)designing an virtual word by a patient.

Relevant work done in this context

• Virtual conversation

Therapist side

Most studies on VR exposure treatment only focus on the patient side, ignoring the therapist side of the system. From their console therapists however need to control the experience of the patient. In a flight simulation, for example, the therapist controls the behaviour of the plane (taxiing, taking off, weather conditions, pilot calls, and turbulence). The therapists’ confidence in controlling the system seems essential for acceptance of these systems, and therefore some research has also focused on the usability of the therapist user interface proposing various design improvements (Gunawan et al., 2004; Schuemie et al., 2002).

Relevant work done in this context

• Designing a Multiple patient VRET system
• Generic therapist user interface

Reference

Gunawan, L.T., van der Mast, C., Neerincx, M.A., Emmelkamp, P., and Krijn, M. (2004). Usability of therapist's user interface in virtual reality exposure therapy for fear of flying. In Proceedings of the Euromedia 2004 (Hasselt, Belgium, April 19-21, 2004), pp. 125-132.

Schuemie, M.J., van der Mast, C.A.P.G., Krijn, M., and Emmelkamp P.M.G. (2002) Exploratory design and evaluation of a user interface for virtual reality exposure therapy. In J.D. Westwood, H.M. Hoffman, R.A. Robb, D. Stredney (Eds.), Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 02/10, IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp. 468-474.